Nav Bar

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Creeper and Scuzzball apparently will be moving to a new
store, but that shouldn’t stop you from paying a call on them while they’re at
the old store. At the old store, after all, you always know where you can find them.
In the new store, at least at the start, they might actually get up.

Creeper and Scuzzball are the languid cats of Bleecker
Street Records, one of the few consequential record stores left in New York. It’s
been said to be closing, due to the typical rent challenges of city stores.
But credible sources tell me it’s moving, probably in the fall.

It’s moving, they say, to the former site of another record
store — 186 West Fourth Street, once the home of Disc-O-Rama. Disc-O-Rama, which
has had several stores, is now just at 44 West Eighth Street. It, too, carries
CDs and LPs — but not with the festiveness of Bleecker Street.

At Bleecker Street Records, the main attractions are the
walls. There aren’t any. At least not that you can see. If they are there, they
are concealed by hundreds of beguiling albums, which recall the
joys that were once a part of a hunt for musical treasure.

They include rarities by the likes of the Beatles and Buddy
Holly, and oddities by the likes of Carroll O’Connor and Zero Mostel. This may
the only place in the world that displays an LP by the Detergents, who answered
the bizarre Shangri-Las hit “Leader of the Pack” with their bizarrer hit, “Leader
of the Laundromat.”

The albums provide education along with entertainment. They
are festooned with labels that tell you things you never thought you could
know. A formidable example is found on the label for the Japanese pressing of an
album intriguingly titled “The Best of Cheryl Ladd”:

“Did you know this former ‘Charlie’s Angel’ was also the
singing voice behind the animated cartoon ‘Josie & the Pussycats,’ and she
was very popular in Japan where she enjoyed a successful career and released
many Japanese Market only releases!!! Well, it’s all true!!!”

And as if that isn’t enough, the label makes sure to add:
“Japanese pressing/Best Quality! ... Immaculate Condition!!!! This Gatefold LP
comes with a huge color poster of Cheryl … Va Va Voom!!!!”

Below the displays, the place is packed with recorded music,
much of which you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. It spans not just rock and
pop, but everything from country to Broadway, with a dash of Noël Coward, Jimmy
Durante, Chad Everett, and Rosey Grier.

Topping it off — almost literally — are Creeper and
Scuzzball, two big gray furry meat loaves who doze on boxes by the stairs to
the basement. They hardly move and they rarely respond. Evidently, this gives
them mystique. One of the store’s best-selling items is the Creeper and
Scuzzball T-shirt.

Inevitably, there’s some whining online about the record
prices. They can be high. But so can prices on any other antiques. Besides, the
bins in the basement are full of surprising bargains. And if you’re looking for
“The Best of Cheryl Ladd,” how many options do you have?

The store, more or less as it is, dates to 1972. It was
called The Golden Disc, with “disc” referring to vinyl. It changed
hands in the mid-nineties and was redubbed Bleecker Street. The new store
settled in just in time to enjoy the golden age of compact discs.

Today it counts on record hounds willing to
pay the price, says Rob Lecuyer, one of the store managers. “People come to New
York to spend money, and this is a real tourist street,” he says. “Some people
complain about prices. Other people drop thousands in one sitting.”

West Fourth is also a tourist street, so it seems like a
good bet. And that’s good for New Yorkers — at least the ones who still like to
hunt.

“Anything and everything will sell,” Rob says. “What you
think is crap, somebody else is like: ‘I’ve been looking for this my whole
life.’”

FOR MORE RARE
RECORDS, VISIT HOUSE OF OLDIES, ON CARMINE STREET, JUST AROUND THE CORNER FROM
BLEECKER STREET RECORDS. AND READ ABOUT HOUSE OF OLDIES — AND DOZENS
OF OTHER CLASSIC SPOTS — IN THE AMAZON BEST SELLER “DISCOVERING VINTAGE NEW YORK”!

New York Chronicles

About Me

For twenty years, I wrote about New York for the nation's largest newspaper chain. Now I write about New York for the nation's largest Internet. I do this because I love to explore the city and to share what I've found, except when I'm greedy about it and decide to keep it to myself.
"Vintage," of course, means old, but it also means timeless. It's my defense for covering new things that evoke old New York spirit. But I mostly cover the best places that take you back in time, whether you are revisiting a time or just now discovering it.
On the street I still feel like a tourist, and I tend to look like one, too. These are perhaps my greatest qualifications. Among my others are some of the top prizes in New York City journalism, which nobody really cares about because they're not a Pulitzer.